Tucson Oddity: Underpass on trail keeps hikers, traffic safely apart

The smokestack at Rincon/University High School is the school's identifying landmark. The smokestack is believed to be part of an incinerator that was once used to burn the school's garbage.

You start up a desert trail into rugged Pima Canyon north of
Tucson - expecting to see tall saguaros or perhaps a herd of
javelina.

Well, surprise! The first thing you come to is an underpass.

The trail leads through a cavernous, concrete tunnel-like
underpass beneath a road bridge - similar to what you might
encounter while driving a highway. Never mind that you're trekking
on a national forest trail.

Odd as it might appear to hikers coming upon it for the first
time, the underpass serves an important purpose: providing
safety.

A road leading to a subdivision crosses the trail site, and
developers installed a bridge and underpass so hikers could avoid
the road, said Steve Anderson of the Pima County Natural Resources,
Parks and Recreation Department.

The trailhead, at the east end of Magee Road, and the first
short stretch of the trail are on county land.

The bridge and underpass "allow the walkers to hike the path
without stopping, and the residents to access the northern portion
of their subdivision without having to stop and let someone pass,"
Anderson said.

"It also keeps the subdivision private," he said. "The hikers
can't access the subdivision."

Even though this underpass is on a hiking trail, it shares a
characteristic with ones that run under city streets and highways:
lots of graffiti.

Names, designs, proclamations of love and other scrawls cover
the curved ceiling.